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Star Group's digital cable network `almost ready'

Star Group Chairman James Murdoch, center, gestures yesterday as he and his colleagues, Star Group president Bruce Churchill, left, and Star Taiwan president Ivan Yuan, right, pose with Star Group actors and actresses in a name-changing ceremony yesterday in Taipei. PHOTO: CHEN CHENG-CHANG, TAIPEI TIMES

James Murdoch, chairman of the Hong Kong-based Star Group Ltd, yesterday renewed his company's commitment to roll out a digital cable network, amidst concerns over delays.

"The soft launch began this month ? of Asia's first truly interactive digital cable service, using high-end set-top boxes with many more capabilities than deployed in other markets around Asia," he said.

The new service is managed by Star's local partner, China Network Systems (中嘉網路), of which Taiwan's Koos Group (和信集團) holds a 80 percent stake, while Star Group owns the remaining 20 percent. The US$240 million venture is part of Star Group's plan to take a share from Taiwan's digital TV market.

"We are here to make great entertainment and to create a strong bond with local viewers. We have made long-term investments in cable systems to help transform the existing infrastructure into a digital world-class distribution network," he stressed yesterday.

Murdoch made the comments during a ceremony to announce the formal Chinese name-change of the company from Star Group (衛星電視) to Star Group (星空傳媒集團). Yesterday marked the group's 10-year anniversary in Taiwan.

Star Group, with a 7-percent share of the viewing market in Taiwan, currently owns eight channels that broadcast both Mandarin and English movies, sports, music, entertainment and documentary programs.

The soft launch of Taiwan's first digital cable service is being tested in Taipei's Chungho and Yungho districts, said China Network's Public Relations Manager Judy Chiang (蔣惠亭).

Starting from Nov. 6, 80,000 subscribers to New Visual Wave (新視波), a cable-service provider in Chungho and Yungho, can subscribe a digital set-top box with a deposit of NT$1,500 to view around 100 digital channels, including five new channels provided by China Network.

Digital cable networks can carry phone calls, data and video and they far outstrip the capacity available via analog cable networks.

The upgraded cable system and set-top boxes will allow viewers to view programming on Star's pay television stations and will offer a range of functions such as parental control, a Chinese-language electronic program guide, access to interactive premium channels and e-commerce services. Star, a wholly owned subsidiary of global media giant News Corp, operates 30 distributed services in seven languages to 53 Asian countries.

"Our next step is to offer [paid] premium-movie and erotica channels," she said. However, the plan can't move forward due to government regulations that forbid firms from charging for TV programs, she added.

Originally scheduled to launch in early 2002, Star Group's digital cable service has been delayed twice due to various problems and was only fired up officially last Wednesday.

Chiang explained that the delays were caused by central and local government licensing red tape. "The change from analogue to digital requires the refiling of proposals and approval from both the GIO and local governments," Chiang said.
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